Counting Crows and Everything After

Thanks mostly in part to Livenation.com, I got to see Counting Crows and Goo Goo Dolls at the Verizon Ampitheater in Selma, TX, just outside of San Antonio. It was my first official concert in the new city, and what better way to see a show than pay absolutely nothing for it?

I signed up for a few of the concert mailing lists like Ticketmaster and Livenation and was getting weekly emails about upcoming shows and events. I finally got around to changing my location to San Antonio from Houston when only two days later I get an email from Livenation.com that I had been “invited to a special show of my choice.”

Naturally getting any free offer from an email usually ends up having me send it directly to the Junk Mail folder, but I actually decided to click the link. It basically sent me to a page where it told me to pick the free show of my choice from a list, and Counting Crows/Goo Goo Dolls was the ONLY one on the list. Sure enough, I had actually won two free lawn seats for the show. I NEVER win anything, so I was stoked.

The show itself was awesome. I don’t care much for Goo Goo Dolls, but i’ve always loved Counting Crows. It was the second-to-last show on the tour and you could tell both bands were looking forward to getting home, but it didn’t inhibit the show at all.

It changed from being a light drizzle to full blown rain several times throughout the night (another reason I hate lawn seats), but it didn’t affect us much. We sat through the entire show and enjoyed every minute of it.

Counting Crows set list:
Omaha
Anna Begins
Mrs. Potters Lullaby
Rain King
Angels of the Silences
Big Yellow Taxi
Hangin Around
A Long December
The Ghost In You (from the Clueless soundtrack, originally by Psychedelic Furs)
Friend of the Devil (by Grateful Dead)
Holiday in Spain

There were two other songs I didn’t recognize (I think they were new), but overall I was singing along to every word. The version of Rain King they sung was slowed down quite a bit, but it only made the words that much more touching. It only made the irony of the crappy weather even more amusing; in fact it had actually stopped raining, and almost mid chorus of the song it started up again.

I was REALLY excited when they started singing Ghost In You, as I hadn’t even heard that song in years and it was always one of my favorites of theirs off an already awesome soundtrack.

I couldn’t have been to a better free concert. Heh.